on Apr 23, 2026

HR&A Supports Mayor Helena Moreno’s First 100 Days in New Orleans

Deep community engagement and moving with speed are often treated as tradeoffs. Mayor Helena Moreno proved otherwise. As the first Latina to be elected mayor of New Orleans, she inherited a city facing a severe budget crisis and residents who had stopped expecting government to show up. Her response was to do both things at once: fix what was broken, and bring the community into government decision-making in a way that was substantive enough to earn that trust back.

 

HR&A’s team, led by Andrea Batista Schlesinger, was honored to help design and manage her transition, including supporting the Mayor’s Office to run a large-scale civic engagement initiative to identify community priorities and the concrete steps the City will take to deliver on them. Nearly 300 civic leaders served on seven policy committees covering economic development, housing, homelessness, public safety, youth and families, arts and culture, investing in New Orleans East, and government operations, shaping the administration’s priorities for the first 100 days and beyond. The citywide All In survey they helped design reached nearly 5,800 residents, and over 400 more shared their priorities directly with City leaders at in-person events across every Council district.

 

Civic leaders were then invited back to translate what residents said into concrete steps the City will take, from immediate street repairs to large-scale investments to strengthen New Orleans’ economy. The roadmap they built together is now guiding the Moreno administration’s first term.

 

HR&A’s CEO Jeff Hébert and members of our team were proud to join members of the administration and civic leaders at Gallier Hall to mark this important milestone for New Orleans.

 

Read the full press release here. 

Survey findings here.

 

Related Coverage: 

100 days in, Mayor Helena Moreno says she’s ‘proud of the progress,’ but more work ahead — Times Picayune Nola